This invention relates to medical guidewires and to a means of removing such guidewires from the protective tubes in which guidewires are shipped and for the insertion of the guidewires into patients through a one hand operation.
Guidewires are routinely used in medical procedures where it is desired to introduce a catheter into a patient's blood vessel such as an artery or vein.
In a typical procedure, one approach of utilizing such guidewires for the positioning of a catheter is called the Seldinger technique. In that technique, a catheter introducer is used that has a relatively short flexible cannula that is placed within the patient's blood vessel. Actual insertion of the cannula is assisted by the use of a needle that is positioned within the cannula and is thus inserted in the blood vessel. Upon insertion, the needle is withdrawn, leaving the cannula tip within the blood vessel while the body of the catheter introducer remains external of the patient.
A guidewire is then inserted through the catheter introducer and is extended through the tip of the cannula within the patient's blood vessel until it is positioned with its tip at the desired location within the patient. Upon removal of the catheter introducer, the guidewire remains in the patient and a long catheter is easily slid over the guidewire to the desired position and the guidewire withdrawn. Thus, the catheter remains within the patient having its distal end located at the proper position within the patient's blood vessel.
Such guidewires are delivered through normal shipping channels and are subject to considerable handling prior to and during shipment. The guidewire itself is packaged within a protective tube in a coiled form. Generally, a guidewire straightener fits within the end of the protective tube and the guidewire itself passes through the guidewire straightener and has its end formed into a J configuration just outside the distal end of the guidewire straightener.
A guidewire straightener, of the type used herein. is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,905 and assigned to the present assignee. A difficulty arises, however, in the actual introduction of the guidewire into the patient using the configuration of that patent. The guidewire requires the manipulation of two hands for the user to move the guidewire and extend it from the protective tube into the patient's blood vessel.
In using the arrangement shown in the aforementioned patent, the user is required to grip the protective tube with one hand and pull the guidewire and guidewire straighener out from that tube with the other hand. Thus, the user needs both hands to properly introduce the guidewire, whereas, it is more advantageous for the user to have a free hand to carry out other operations during such introduction. Continued insertion of the guidewire requires both hands as the guidewire is advanced into the patient in increments.
As an alternate to introducing the guidewire in increments, some users chose to remove the entire guidewire at one time from the protective tube and then introduce it into the patient. Again, however, a difficulty is encountered in that the lengthy proximal end of the guidewire swings free as the distal end is introduced into the patient and that proximal end may easily touch some nonsterile object and thus the guidewire itself is no longer sterile.